Journey Repaired
by shadowoftime
Summary: NaruHina. A young group leaves Konoha. What new things will they learn? Will they ever return? Mostly NaruHina, SasuSaku.
1. Unexpected Departure

**I don't own Naruto.**

This is my second fic. Please read and review.

* * *

Unexpected Departure

A young blonde-haired boy stood in a clearing of a forest with his eyes closed. His clothes were orange and he was covered in dirt.

"Okay, Naruto, you can open your eyes now." The boy opened his eyes revealing two cerulean blue pupils. Everything seemed normal to him at first, but his goggles did seem to feel heavier than normal. It was then that he noticed that his teacher in front of him was not wearing his headband. "Congratulations!" the teacher said, "You pass!"

Naruto was ecstatic. He was a ninja now! He had finally graduated from the academy! This would be awesome! "Thanks Iruka-sensei!" the boy said after a moment, jumping forward to give his teacher a hug. It was then a familiar voice interrupted the moment.

"Hey dobe." The two turned to see another boy standing near them, about Naruto's age, with pitch black hair and charcoal eyes. He was dressed in his usual navy blue shirt and tan shorts. On his forehead was a headband identical to the one Naruto had just been given. "It's you!" Naruto yelled. It was more of an angry statement than a questioning one. "You're that pretty-boy _Sasuke, _who thinks he's so much better than everyone."

"Sasuke, why are you here?" questioned Iruka. He couldn't remember a time when the boy would speak to someone without telling them to leave him alone.

"I'm here to speak to the idiot there. Well Naruto, looks like you passed after all, not that it matters."

"Hey, just what are you talking about?! '_not that it matters'_? I've got the headband, so I'm a ninja now!" the blonde replied loudly. Iruka just stood and listened to the to boys conversation, wondering why Sasuke wanted to speak to Naruto.

"I heard you stole a powerful scroll." he said, motioning toward the scroll on Naruto's back. "You don't seem to like it here in the village, do you? Nobody seems to want you here."

"Just what are you saying, Sasuke?" their teacher interrupted, "There are plenty of people here in Konoha who enjoy having Naruto here!"

"That's not what I've been hearing." Sasuke continued, "Everyone in the village is talking about a punishment for stealing the scroll as we speak. By the sound of it most everyone in the village thinks death would be a fair punishment, while others argue it's not enough."

Naruto looked down sadly, his face covered in shadow. Iruka did the same. He had been afraid the village would react this way. It would take all the influence he had as the boy's teacher just to keep the punishment reasonable. He would be lucky to even keep his new headband.

"Hey dobe," Naruto looked up, his saddened expression immediately faded and replaced with a scowl.

"I have a name! It's Naruto Uzumaki, and don't you forget it! I'm going to become the hokage someday!"

"Whatever. Well, _Naruto,_" he reluctantly used the boy's name, "Why don't you just leave? If you bring that scroll, and keep that pink-haired ninja wannabe away from me, I'll allow you to come with me."

"You're leaving Konoha?" Naruto's curiosity was piqued, "But you just graduated from the academy? Why are you leaving?"

"I have something I need to accomplish, and I'm only being slowed down here. Tomorrow they'll be placing us in three man teams, and I'll probably end up getting stuck with some idiots who rely on me to do all the work. I'd be better off taking my chances with you and that pink-haired girl."

"Sakura-chan is coming too?" Naruto was interested now. He had a crush on the girl, even if she was obsessed with Sasuke.

"I couldn't change her mind, but if you're there, it may help keep her away. I'm also interested in that scroll you have…"

By this time they had forgotten about Iruka, who still stood listening nearby. "I can't let you go! As your teacher I insist you remain here in Konoha, and return the scroll as well!"

"Too bad, Iruka" Sasuke replied, "There's nothing you can do to stop us. It seems you're badly injured, and you seem to have other matters that need attending to." Sasuke motioned his head toward the unconscious form of another academy teacher laying not too far from Naruto's feet.

"Meet me at the gate in one hour." Sasuke added, turning back towards Naruto. "Only bring that scroll and whatever else you can carry on you, in other words, nothing to hard to travel with." Naruto nodded with a wide smile. Thoughts of not having to deal with the villagers anymore swam in his head. He would be free.

* * *

The two genin stood at the gate to Konoha. As they each checked through their supplies one last time, a familiar voice called to them.

"Sasuke!" the pink-haired girl known as Sakura yelled as she raced toward them, waving a hand in the air. "Good thing I showed up an hour early or you would have left without me." she said between breaths, finally having caught up with the two.

Sasuke mentally cursed. This girl was smarter than he gave her credit for. It wasn't until then that she noticed the blonde boy standing next to Sasuke. "What's _he _doing here?!"

"He's leaving the village with me. Hope you don't mind…" He made sure the last words had sounded as sarcastic as he could make them, in hopes she would stay in Konoha.

"Of course she won't mind." stated Naruto happily, "She would miss me if I didn't come, right Sakura-chan?" This received him a knock on the head from Sakura, and a look from Sasuke that seemed to ask 'Are you really that dumb?'.

* * *

It was morning in Konoha. The hokage sat in his office. He had just been informed by Iruka of the conversation the boys had the previous night. He had never intended to punish the boy, but that didn't matter now, he was gone, and he had taken the scroll with him.

"Hokage-sama." A voice interrupted his thoughts as he look up at one of the jounin he had told about the situation. "I think they should now be classified a missing-nins. Once they are, we can send out a team to bring them back to Konoha."

"No." the old man answered, "We can't classify them as missing-nins because they haven't officially become genin yet. They are currently ranked as average citizens, which have the right to come and go as they please. We have no authority to bring them back to the village." With that settled, he brought up another question. "Have you contacted their families?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama. As you know, the Uchiha and _that kid_ didn't have families, but the girl's parents have been notified. They were very upset to hear the news, but more so to hear who was with her."

At this moment, a young child rushed into the room, shuriken in hand, and charged toward the Hokage. Halfway there, he tripped on a long blue scarf that hung from his neck, and fell flat on his face. He got to his feet, angry and embarrassed, and rushed out of the room, another assassination attempt foiled.

The two in the room paid no attention to this whatsoever, and continued discussing the subject at hand.

* * *

A young girl walked through the streets of Konoha. That morning she was headed for the academy, for an orientation of some sort. Her mind wasn't on he future ninja career, though. She was thinking sadly of the boy who had failed the academy test. As badly as she wanted him to succeed, his dream had been crushed once again as he was denied being a ninja. She was pulled from her thoughts by a conversation she overheard between two jounin.

"Did you hear? That kid finally left, you know the annoying blonde one?" one of them said, carefully choosing his words in an open place such as the street. "He's gone?" the other asked, not a trace of sadness in his voice. "Yeah, he left the village last night through the west gate. By the looks of it, he won't be coming back."

Hinata's heart fell. He was gone. The boy she loved had left and she would never see him again. She would never get to tell him how she feels. _Naruto-kun…Why did you leave me? What will I do? I can't live without you! Why didn't you take me with you?_

She stopped. That was the answer! If Naruto-kun wasn't here, why should she be? She would be with him no matter the cost. She turned and headed back to her house to gather he things. She had no time to lose if she was going to catch up to him.

* * *

"Team 7…" the tired chunnin said as he looked at the room full of academy graduates, "will be consist of…" his eyes seem to skip a few lines on the paper he was holding, and a sad look flashed across his face before he continued. "Inuzuka Kiba, Shino Aburame, and…" He glanced up to the shy girl's seat, but she wasn't there. This wasn't like her. She was never late to an important event such as this, unless… Realization hit him. This wasn't good, she must of heard that Naruto left the village. He would need to talk to Hokage-sama when he was finished calling out teams.

"Ahem, due to an odd number of ninjas this year, you will be assigned a third team member shortly. Team 8…"

Kiba knew exactly what was going on. There were exactly thirty students before the academy test. But that Naruto kid hadn't passed, just like he thought, and now there was one less person to form teams with. He was upset at not having a full team because of that idiot, but still glad he failed. By the looks of things, his team would have been the one to have Naruto on it.

* * *

It was noon by the time they awoke. They had spent all night traveling, and were still fairly close to Konoha. The tent Sasuke brought was a large one he found somewhere in the Uchiha house. Sasuke slept at one end of the tent, and Sakura was at the other. She didn't like it this way, but Sasuke had insisted on Naruto sleeping between the two, so she had no choice but sleeping at the far end.

Sasuke was the first one awake, who woke Naruto up next. He was proving to be an effective shield against the annoying fan girl. Sasuke was now glad he brought him along, the scroll was just a bonus compared to his ability to repel Sakura.

After the ten minutes it took to wake Naruto up, they each rolled up their sleeping bags. As Naruto went to wake up Sakura with as much noise as he usually used, Sasuke stepped out of the tent to survey the surroundings.

There was a log on the ground that they had used as a bench, and circle of stones surrounding a pit of ash and glowing embers. Scattered around the fire were fish bones and an empty cup of instant ramen.

* * *

Hinata raced through the forest, hoping that Naruto had stopped for the night to rest. If he didn't, it would take a long time for her to catch him and she was already tired out from hours of running.

A loud scream caught her attention. It wasn't a scream of fear, it sounded more angry with a bit of surprise. She changed course slightly to head toward the scream, hoping whoever it was might have seen Naruto-kun.

As she came upon what appeared to be a campsite, she saw a figure standing outside the tent, but it was facing away from her, and she was too tired to see who it was from such a distance.

"Naruto-kun?" she asked, causing the figure to turn toward her. It didn't answer. Instead it stuck its head inside the tent.

* * *

What Sasuke saw was Naruto, being strangled to death by what he assumed was Sakura. Her hair was extremely messy compared to her usual appearance at the academy. Her clothes were wrinkled and dirty, but what made her so different from the girl he knew was the face. It was a face like a demon's that radiated with killer intent. It…it scared him. He had never seen her angry before, she never acted like this towards him. He almost felt sorry for Naruto, but he had to interrupt her revenge.

"Hey dobe," he said, gaining both their attention and causing Sakura's face to return to her normal calm self, "you have a visitor."

Naruto blinked in confusion, as did Sakura. "What?" Sakura finally asked before Naruto could, "how could he have a visitor in this situation? We abandoned Konoha and are several miles away from the village." Eager to see what Sasuke was talking about, they both stepped out of the tent, with Sasuke in the lead.

* * *

When the person had completely entered the tent without a response, the pale-eyed girl approached the campsite, careful to remain at a distance that wouldn't anger the camp's owner. She almost jumped when someone started to step out of the tent. The first thing she noticed about him, was that he wasn't Naruto, but he did look familiar.

"Gomen…" she began, but stopped when another figure stepped out of the tent. This one she knew very well. "N-Naruto-kun!" she said happily as he eyed at her questioningly. "W-Why? Why d-did you leave K-Konoha, Naruto-kun?"

"You're from the academy, Hyuuga Hinata, am I correct?" She nodded to Sasuke's question. "We all have are reasons for leaving the village. What about you? Why did you follow us?"

"I…I h-heard…w-well, I…" Hinata stuttered, resuming her habit of looking down at her fingers as she repeatedly touched her index fingers together.

"It's okay." Sakura said knowingly, "You don't have to say it."

The two boys looked over at Sakura questioningly. Why did she stop her? They wanted to know why she was here!

"Listen you two," Sakura said after noticing Hinata's backpack, "Hinata here is coming with us, and that's final."

"Great!" Naruto said, "Now you just need a codename!" Sakura sweat-dropped; Hinata tilted her head to the side in curiosity.

"For the last time," Sasuke replied angrily, "we are _not _using codenames!"

* * *

They had packed up camp and continued traveling shortly after, but Hinata was too tired to go very far. She hadn't got a chance to rest like they had, so they stopped after a few minutes and set up camp again. Hinata tried to apologize for the inconvenience, but Naruto stopped her, saying they could use this time to train. That comment directed Sasuke's attention back to the scroll that Naruto brought.

He opened the scroll as the others gathered around. They were amazed at the amount of high-level jutsu the scroll contained. They each found a lower-level jutsu that they were interested in, and began to clear an area big enough for all of them to train in. The rest of the day would prove to be somewhat chaotic as they each tried to learn a new jutsu…

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End of chapter 1

Next chapter: the group attempts to learn new jutsu, which are about chunnin level. Which jutsu did each choose? And will they be able to master them? Other stuff happens too.

I'll try to write the next chapter soon. Please leave a review! Comments, questions, suggestions, and feedback are welcome!


	2. The Spirit and the Spirited

**I don't own Naruto.**

Thanks for the great reviews! Just for them, I decided to get another chapter up as soon as possible. It appears Sakura survived the first chapter, so I will be adding some SasuSaku, but it will remain a NaruHina fic. As for their decisions to leave, Sasuke started it and put a lot of thought into it, Sakura found out and had to go or be left behind (not yet realizing the seriousness of the situation), Naruto was under pressure from the threats of punishment, and Hinata's thoughts were centered entirely around Naruto-kun when she heard that he left. It was a 'go now or not at all' decision, and I had already planned to have them think back on it not too much farther into the story. Thanks for the support and if I do anything to completely ruin this story, tell me and I might alter it (However, I will not change every little thing you think should be different). Okay, now on with the story.

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The Spirit and the Spirited

Somewhere in another realm the Death God hovered menacingly in darkness. At his side was a lone figure, who was staring at the same objectless image as the Death God. The Death God was furious, although he only looked as he always did.

"You lose." The figure beside him stated simply, showing no sign of visible or even concealed fear. "He held it for twelve years. It seems mortals aren't as weak as you think." At this the Death God only grunted in disapproval.

"And if I recall," the figure continued, "the stakes to our little wager were the souls of the kid and the Kyuubi if you won, against my soul and body if I won." A steadfast expression remained on his face. He had enormous faith that the boy would succeed, and he had been correct.

"Very well then. I am obligated to keep my word, no matter how much I despise to lose a good meal." A deep voice rumbled back at him. "As promised, I will restore your body to the exact condition and location it was in when we made the bet, and you will be sent back to it."

He stood perfectly still as a strange feeling washed over him. A feeling. He had felt nothing over the past twelve years. This was something almost foreign to him. As the feeling stopped, a single thought dashed through his head. _I'm back… _

He could see the familiar forest below him, stretching out to the horizon. He could see the village of Konoha in the distance, the people seeming like ants running through the streets. The first thing he realized was that he was on the outskirts of Konoha, about an hours walk from the actual village. The second thing he realized was that he was fifty feet in the air, and quickly falling toward the trees below.

* * *

Naruto grunted in annoyance. The stupid wind thingy wasn't working. Once again he performed the set of hand seals and swung his arm through the air in front of him. The leaves on the tree in front of him shook slightly just as they did every time since he started.

Sakura made another kunai mark on the tree in front of her. She then held her hand over the mark, and a green glow was emitted from her palm. She removed her hand from the tree moments later to reveal the mark was gone. Inner Sakura cheered loudly, while Sakura just smiled. She was doing much better than she had when she started. She still didn't know why the mark kept moving to the left whenever she tried to close it up then. _Now, I just need make the mark deeper and keep practicing…_or, _I could go see how Sasuke is doing! I bet his jutsu is really awesome! _With that, she put her training on hold to go see Sasuke.

Sasuke was leaning against a tree not too far away. He had mastered the jutsu a while ago, but it just took so much chakra. Anyway, it wasn't the one he had wanted to learn. The on that caught his attention was a jounin level technique, which he would have attempted had it not been for the note that accompanied it. _'Due to the head on nature of this jutsu, it leaves the user susceptible to enemy countermeasures. For this reason it is labeled as dangerous, and is to only be attempted by its creator.' _So he had just chosen a technique he recognized from his clan's library, telling himself he would learn the dangerous jutsu some other time. He then saw the pink-haired kunoichi coming towards him and yelled to Naruto on the other side of the clearing, "Hey, dobe, that's enough training for today! The sun's starting to set! We'll need our rest to head out early tomorrow!"

Naruto heard Sasuke call him, and ran over to join the others near the tent. They entered the tent and quietly got ready for bed, careful not to wake the shy girl. After choosing a jutsu from the scroll, Hinata had laid down in the tent to rest from her run to catch up with the others that morning, promising herself she was just resting and would begin training with the others in a few minutes. She was now curled up in the middle of the tent, fast asleep, the hood of her jacket serving as a pillow.

As the others rolled out their sleeping bags, Naruto just looked at her for a moment. She looked so peaceful there, calm and happy. This wasn't the girl he knew her as. He had always seen her as nervous, or upset about something that wasn't even her fault. _She looks… _he thought, not knowing how to finish the words that had appeared on their own.

"Goodnight, Sasuke!" Sakura whispered cheerfully across the tent, pulling Naruto back to reality. He began to unroll his sleeping bag as well, and soon all four shinobi were fast asleep.

* * *

In the office of the Hokage sat a white-eyed, stern-faced man, as well as the hokage himself. "That is not of my concern." the stern-faced man said, "Now if you will excuse me, I have more important matters to attend to." He stood up and turned to leave. He was halfway out the door when the hokage spoke.

"Hiashi, do you not care for your daughter?" the old man questioned with a sad look in his eyes.

"I care for my daughter Hanabi, who is waiting for me at home. Now if this was all you called me here for, I must return home to finish Hanabi's training for today." With that, he left, not waiting for a reply.

* * *

A man lay on the ground, not far from the town of Konoha. "Stupid God of Death…" he muttered as he made his way to his feet. He turned in the direction of the village. He couldn't just go back and pretend nothing had happened. Everyone thought he was dead. _Those kids…_he thought, remembering what he had seen just before he had returned, _they've left the village. They shouldn't be registered as missing-nin, so I could probably travel with them…Now just where are they, anyway?_

He performed a familiar seal. It felt so good to use a jutsu again after all these years. "Shadow clone jutsu." he said as twenty more of him appeared. "Fan out through the forest. Avoid being seen. Report back to me if you find them. You know who we're looking for." All the clones took off simultaneously, as the real one began to slowly walk through the forest, trying to get used to having a body again. Of course he didn't have to give the clones orders for them to know what to do. He just sort of did it out of habit.

* * *

The eastern sky was already beginning to glow faintly with light before on of his clones returned with the information he needed. He cancelled the jutsu, and sped of in the direction the clone had motioned. The Uchiha had said they would leave early, he had no time to waste.

* * *

Sasuke was again the first one awake. He looked out to see only a faint glow in the night sky. The sun would rise soon. He decided to go gather some food for breakfast, so he left the tent silently and made his way back to the same stream he had visited yesterday. Using the same method, he began to catch more fish.

Meanwhile, back at camp, Sakura was waking up as well. She turned to see that Sasuke was gone, and a set of footprints led in the direction of the river. _Good. Sasuke's getting breakfast. I'm starving. _She thought gratefully, still half asleep. Slowly making her way out of the tent, she came to the conclusion that without any money, they would be having fish for a while. She groaned at the thought, but accepted it, and began making a fire.

Sasuke returned shortly afterwards to find Sakura poking at the now lit fire with a stick. Mounted above the fire was a mostly flat rock, supported by carefully arranged branches. Next to the tired girl lay a pile of plants, mostly green with some other colors here and there. _How long was I gone? _Sasuke thought, looking up at the sky. It was only a little lighter than it had been when he left.

"Oh, hey Sasuke." She said drowsily, her voice lacking its usual adoration. Without really paying much attention she took the fish from him and placed it on the stone slab. She then began cutting some of the plants with a kunai.

Sasuke was confused. She didn't try to hug him, or tell him how great he was. She didn't seem to care that her hair was messy and she was covered in dirt. He came to the conclusion that she must be too sleepy to care. It was early after all, when she was more awake she would surely resume her normal habits. For now though, things seemed safe. He walked over and joined her on the log, silently watching her cut the…what were those?

"They're cooking herbs." she said without shifting her glance away from the strange plants. "I found some growing near the tent, and figured we might as well add some more flavor if we'll be eating fish every day."

They sat in silence for a while as she finished the cooking. She had become the annoying girl he knew her as yet, but she did seem to be getting more lively with every passing minute. After a while, Sakura turned behind her and yelled towards the tent. "Hey, wake up you two love birds! Breakfast is ready!" Sasuke again looked over at her as she yelled, obviously very confused. Had he missed something?

Unknown to them, Hinata had just woken up of her own accord when Sakura yelled to them. A deep blush overtook her face at the comment. The she noticed Naruto still asleep next to her. He was on top of his sleeping bag, and turned to the side; his legs draped over her own sleeping bag. She quickly jumped away, her blush deepening to a shade of red unimaginable. Luckily, she thought, nobody else was in the tent. Wait, was that a good thing? She hurriedly made her way out, trying unsuccessfully to hide her blushing face.

Sakura burst into laughter when shy girl emerged from the tent. Sasuke however didn't exactly understand what was so funny, so her brushed it off as something below him, and turned his attention back to…what had he been doing all morning? He remembered catching fish, then Sakura cooked the fish, and then…where had the time gone?

* * *

After Naruto had woken up from the smell of food, they all began eating. It wasn't exactly the best cooking, but the herbs Sakura added did make it taste a little better. Naruto noticed Hinata was acting strange near him again, avoiding eye contact, and even blushing when he looked at her. He had already asker her if something was wrong, only to receive a knock on the head from Sakura. She couldn't figure out why Hinata would like someone so dumb, but if Sakura could beat some sense into the boy, he might just leave her alone.

They talked some as they ate, only about minor things. Hinata had just learned that Naruto had graduated after all, and she congratulated him.

They were only five minute into their meal, when something caught their attention. A tall man with wild blonde hair was approaching their campsite from the forest. He wore a white cloak, with crimson flames embroidered at the bottom. His eyes were a cerulean blue that radiated with a sort of subtle kindness.

Sasuke drew a kunai instinctively, despite the stranger's appearance, they couldn't take any chances. He continued to slowly approach them, until he was standing only a few feet away from them. "Hi." He said with a small wave and a cheerful smile.

All four of them blinked in confusion. The stranger continued, not bothering to explain himself. "You have leaf forehead protectors. You are leaf village genin?" he asked, knowing full well that they weren't.

"No," Sakura answered, "we left Konoha when we got these headbands." Sasuke shot her an angry glare for responding, so she backed down a bit. The stranger started smiling again as he questioned them further.

"So you haven't been assigned to a jounin instructor, am I correct?" Sakura nodded silently so that Sasuke wouldn't notice her. "Good." the man finished, "then from this point on, I am appointing myself as this group's jounin instructor."

* * *

End of chapter 2

Well, there's another chapter done. I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review!

Next chapter: the group travels onward: training in water country.


	3. A Time for Learning

**I don't own Naruto.**

Sorry for the late update. I got lost on the road of life. Once again, thanks for all your support! Wow, this chapter is much longer than normal. I guess it is partly because of the bonus I added at the end of the chapter. You can skip over it if you want. You won't really miss anything in the story if you do. If you encounter anything wrong with the chapter, keep reading and let me know about it with a review afterwards. Here is chapter three.

* * *

A Time for Learning

"Hey! Just who are you, anyway?" Naruto asked loudly while pointing at the stranger.

"I'm your new sensei." the man replied with a grin, "and who are all of you?"

"What exactly makes you think we need a jounin instructor?" Sasuke asked confidently. They had been doing fairly well on their own so far. He then turned to see Sakura clinging to his arm, her eyes giving the stranger the same glare he was. _That didn't last long… _he thought, thinking of the peace he had been enjoying earlier. He jerked his arm away, and was about to continue his questioning when the loud-mouth interrupted.

"Yeah, that's right, we were doing just fine without a sensei! We even learned some strong jutsu all by ourselves!" The two that had been awake yesterday sweat-dropped. That idiot hadn't made even the slightest bit of progress on whatever jutsu it was he had picked.

The man was too busy thinking to listen right now. He had been watching the group since they left the village, and that Uchiha wasn't going to accept him anytime soon. He needed a way to turn the others to his side; they wouldn't be nearly as hard to convince.

"How about I treat you all to ramen whenever we stop at a town." he suggested as if offering a valuable treasure. This was met with a 'So what?' look from Sasuke, an 'Is that supposed to change our minds?' look from Sakura, and cheers of approval from Naruto. Hinata continued to sit quietly as she had done since the man arrived, but smiled at Naruto-kun's response to the offer. Once Naruto quieted down a bit, he put on his 'I completely understand the situation' look, with his eyes squinted closed and a thoughtful nod of his head.

"I say we keep him. He seems trustworthy and could probably teach us some cool ju-"

"He's not a dog, Naruto!" Sakura interrupted, bringing her fist down to meet the back of his head. Hinata let out a slight gasp, and Sasuke turned away as if he didn't know them. The man tried his best to not to burst into laughter, but it was no use; the scene before him was just too much to handle.

The four young shinobi turned in unison to stare at the strange man, who was now doubled over laughing as if he hadn't done so in years. It took several minutes, but he finally regained his composure and returned to the current debate.

"How about we vote." he suggested, the others all still staring. "There are five of us, so we will just vote on whether I will join you or not. All in favor?" He waited, seeing the blonde boy's hand raise almost immediately. Soon afterwards, just as he had expected, the pale-eyed girl's hand slowly rose as well.

The man stopped looking around, knowing those two would be his only supporters, then put his finger to his chin, as if he were attempting to make a difficult decision. The young shinobi watched expectantly, except for Sasuke, who just hung his head in annoyance. This guy was nearly as bad as Naruto, though admittedly not nearly as dumb. After a minute's wait, the man finally raised his own hand in the air. With a silent point to each raised hand to count the vote, he put down his hand and looked at the dark-haired boy and the girl beside him.

"All opposed?" Sasuke didn't bother raising his hand. He had been outsmarted. That guy must have had this planned from the start. All he could do now was accept defeat, or charge at the stranger with a kunai. He decided on the first, due to the fact that he knew nothing about this guy. Other than the man's recent joking behavior, he appeared to be too strong an adversary to take on.

"Well then, it looks like I'll be your jounin instructor. It doesn't look like all of you are in the best mood right now, so you can relax for an hour, then you will all introduce yourselves."

* * *

"My name is Naruto, and I'm gonna be the Hokage one day! I like ramen, and I don't like the three minute wait for instant ramen to cook." He crossed his arms, showing he was done with what could hardly be considered a proper introduction. Well, it was at least better than Sakura's, which didn't contain a single complete sentence; she just kept looking over at _Sasuke_!

"I won't be introducing myself to someone like _you_." Sasuke said cold-heartedly. _An hour may not have been enough. _thought their new sensei. _Maybe next time I'll give him two…_

The shy girl just sat for a moment, and began her introduction once everyone was finished with their own thoughts and had their attention trained on her. "I-I am Hyuuga Hinata. I-I…My goal i-is to become s-stronger." Even after an hour of thinking, that was it. She still couldn't think of something to take the place of what she so badly wanted to say, but couldn't. Nothing else could measure up to those few words that never escaped her lips.

"Well, now that I know who all of you are, I think it's time for me to introduce myself. You can call me Gansaku Shimei. I was once a shinobi of Konoha, but now, like yourselves, I am neither registered as an active Konoha shinobi or a missing-nin."

"So you're a retired shinobi?" questioned Sakura, sounding just as confused as the others looked.

"Something like that." he answered, meaning he didn't want to go into further detail. Luckily, that was good enough for them, and the questions ended before they actually began.

"Now that that's over," Shimei explained, "it appears that we won't have any missions, unless there is some sort of a disturbance in a town we are staying at. Therefore, I will be training the four of you during our time together, and if you meet my standards, I will take you to the chunnin exams when they roll around. However, at first you will be doing no hands-on training, but instead you will be learning, much like you did at the academy." Here a few groans came from the group. "But unlike at the academy, I will be teaching you advanced stuff about hand signs and so on and so forth." During the last sentence he had expertly transitioned his tone from very formal to uncaring, twirling his wrist in the air with the last couple of words.

"Now start packing up camp. We'll be traveling as I teach you, occasionally stopping at towns on the way to where ever I decide we're going." The would-be genin hadn't really paid much attention to the man as he said this, but by the time he finished the sentenced they noticed he was now sitting on the log with them, eating one of the last two fish.

* * *

"This is boring!" Naruto exclaimed as they entered Water Country. "Why do we have to learn what each hand sign does if you're not letting us practice any jutsu?"

During the walk to Water Country all they had done was listen to Shimei lecture them on the specifics of how each hand sign molds their chakra, and which had signs were often included in certain types of jutsu. He given them the slightest chance to speak, even teaching them while they rested.

"Calm down, Naruto. Let's review yesterday's lesson, and then we'll proceed to a new subject rather than individual hand signs. Yesterday I taught you all the specifics of the Tiger seal, if I'm not mistaken. Do any of you remember it's purpose?"

"I know," Sakura chimed in as just as she usually did, "It allows the user to focus large amounts of chakra, in many cases it is used to convert that chakra into other forms of energy, such as heat or electricity."

"Correct as usual. You know, you may want to occasionally want to give the others a chance to answer." Sakura blushed slightly at what she took as a compliment, Naruto nodding in agreement with their sensei. Truthfully, he hadn't known a single answer so far, but he couldn't let everyone else know that.

"Today's lesson will be a bit more complicated. I will be explaining how hand signs are combined into series' to form jutsus. Usually, they are not combined directly, but lined up in small series', which are used in succession to achieve the desired result in the form of ninjutsu. For instance, the series used to call up en enormous amount of water is: Ox, Monkey, Rabbit, Rat, Boar, Bird, Ox, Horse. It can be found at the beginning of some of the more advanced water jutsus such as Water Dragon Missile Jutsu and Giant Water Vortex Jutsu. The differing results of those jutsus occur due to the additional series' of hand signs they contain. The rest of Giant Water Vortex Jutsu is 'Dog, Tiger, Dog, Tiger, Serpent, Tiger, Ox, Monkey, Rabbit', while the Water Dragon Missile Jutsu has many more series' added to it."

"Ano, Shimei-sensei? H-How is this used in a r-real battle?" The pale-eyed girl asked as they continued walking.

"Well, it is mostly how new jutsu get created. A person has to first decide on a desired effect, and learn which series' of hand signs will create it. Next, they need to repeatedly practice using the hand signs to mold their chakra for the jutsu, or it nothing will happen. This means that just using a bunch of hand signs, even if they are the correct ones, will not necessarily cause a jutsu to happen, _Naruto_." he answered, giving Naruto a quick warning glare. "You have to know what the hand signs will do and adjust your chakra properly, usually practicing for a long while before it will work well enough to be used for real. I myself created several jutsu using this knowledge."

This caught Naruto's attention. Any jutsu he wanted, he could make! Now if only he could remember what the hand signs did…What was Tiger again? Something about water?

"And as for your question, Hinata," the man continued, interrupting Naruto's thoughts of destructive power, "The only one I've know to use this knowledge in battle is a past student of mine. He has, how should I say, very good eyesight, and can determine what a jutsu will do before it is even executed. That, combined with an ability of his, allows him to perfectly replicate the enemy's jutsu and has earned him quite a reputation."

"Ah, here we are." Shimei said as they reached the end of the forest. A small town stood before them, the ocean within view. Not too far away, an unfinished bridge could be seen, stretching out across the sea to meet what could barely be made out to be an island on the horizon. "I'll go get us some rooms. You all can explore the town for a while. I assume you'll enjoy it after listening to me talk the whole trip. Oh, and by the way, don't get into any trouble. I have more lessons to teach you and we can't be wasting time."

"Hey, but you said…" Naruto stopped in mid-sentence, as the jounin was already gone. Naruto grumbled something about a promise, then jogged to catch up with the others, who had began to walk away without him. As he caught up he found Sasuke walking along calmly. Sakura was trailing a step behind him and about a foot to his left, trying to start a conversation. Hinata, he realized, wasn't with them. Turning, he saw her slowing from a jog to a walk beside him. She had apparently waited behind with him, until he took off after Sasuke and Sakura, leaving her to catch up. He mentally slapped himself for being inconsiderate.

"Oh, sorry Hinata. I didn't realize you hadn't gone ahead with the others."

The shy girl looked at the ground, turning her head slightly away from him. "Daijoubu desu, Naruto-kun." she said, somewhat apologetically.

Hearing her say it like that, he waved his in front of him defensively. "N-no, Hinata, I didn't mean it like that. It's not your fault; I just wasn't paying attention, that's all." He could have sworn she smiled when he said it, but her head was still down. _If she's smiling, why's she still hiding her face? Oh well, better not to ask about these things. _He rubbed his head, remembering the time he had asked Sakura why she was so obsessed with _Sasuke_. He knew Hinata wouldn't hit him, but that didn't mean she would enjoy being asked about it.

Sasuke stopped and turned around, causing the other three shinobi to stop abruptly. "I've been thinking, that guy's starting to be a real bother. If I'm ever to get stronger, I need train everyday. I don't have time for his endless lectures on hand signs."

"Yeah, Sasuke's right!" Sakura agreed expectedly, "All that guy does is talk about how hand signs are used, but he won't even let us use them! What's the point in teaching us if he's just going to stop us from using jutsu anyway! It doesn't make sense, I tell you. We should just leave him here and continue on our own like in the beginning."

Naruto was about to open his mouth to protest, when Sasuke cut him off. "I'll make sure you get some ramen before we leave, dobe." Now Naruto was mad. First Shimei-sensei, and now Sasuke too! Damn it! Was he really so predictable that everyone could tell what he was thinking! _Eh, I guess it doesn't matter; ramen is ramen, even if it does come from _Sasuke.

"We've got to go now," Sasuke continued, "before he gets back. You'll just have to get some instant ramen from a store or something. Anyway, I'm not waiting." Naruto quickly ran into a nearby store and bought as much instant ramen as he could fit in his pockets, returning to in the group in mere minutes with a triumphant 'I win the challenge!' look. It wasn't long after that before they were out of the village.

* * *

Shimei finished checking in to a quaint hotel in the center of town. Walking outside, he jumped up to the roof of the building. He scanned the town, looking for his team, but to no avail. _Damn it! _he thought to himself, _They ditched me! And just when I was going to take them back for the chunnin exam. I wonder if this inn gives refunds…

* * *

_

Bonus: _The Battle of Mist and Shadow_

A lazy genin stood on the bridge, which was now shrouded in mist. What a troublesome situation. He didn't cast a shadow in this dense mist, and he wasn't exactly sure which direction the others were in, other than the single clue of a loud yell from a particularly annoying girl.

He tossed a kunai toward the towering ninja before him, which was easily avoided as the rouge ninja jumped back a foot. "It finally worked." The genin said with a smirk. "I've got you in my shadow imitation."

"What are you talking about, you little brat! You don't have a shadow here! I can still move, see!" the mist-nin known as Zabuza raised his huge sword with ease, proving he was still free, but not for long. As his sword reached head height, he felt something seemingly shapeless hit him, and his mind went blank.

"Got him?" Shikamaru asked bored, already knowing the answer.

"Yep." The mist-nin's from replied back, "but next time could you throw the kunai harder? I could barely hear where it hit."

"Whatever." By now the mist had faded, and another, mask-wearing, mist-nin came into view, dodging a giant green boulder, his senbon being easily deflected. "Haku! Get over here!" the possessed mist-nin called out, hoping she was right about hearing him called that earlier. To her relief, the enemy responded, and was at her side almost immediately. "Bring me that employer of ours, I should like to have a word with him."

"Hai, Zabuza-san." the boy obeyed without question, seemingly disappearing as he dashed off into the trees. Everyone was surprised to see him return only minutes later, with a bound captive that was almost short enough to be a child.

"You are under arrest for attempted assassination of an important figure." said a deep voice to the bundle the mist-nin had dropped to the ground. The voice was from none other than Konoha's Sarutobi Asuma, who had until now stayed hidden watching what he could see of the fight through the mist, which wasn't much. He hadn't been avoiding fighting, he just wanted to let his team do this on their own.

Shikamaru formed a hand sign, and soon had Zabuza in the grasp of his shadow. He formed another hand sign afterwards, one he wasn't too familiar with. "Release!" said the possessed Zabuza, forming the same hand sign as Shikamaru.

"Zabuza Momochi, The demon of the mist." said Asuma in an almost mocking tone. Zabuza responded with a low growl. "You're employer will most likely receive the death penalty once evidence surfaces of all the crimes he has committed against Wave Country. This means you aren't under his employment anymore, do you wish to continue the fight."

"No" he answered gruffly, Haku standing at his side. When he started struggling to get free, Asuma gave the signal that it was okay to let him go. "Haku, were going on a trip." he said suddenly, without a bit of elaboration on the subject. He then sped off into the forest, Haku at his heels. "Mission accomplished!" Ino said happily, having joined the group after returning to her own body. "Barbeque! Barbeque!" Chouji shouted through a mouth full a chips. Asuma shook his head in thought. _A lazy bum, a loudmouth, and a glutton…I guess my team could be worse. _"Okay, I'll take you all for barbeque to celebrate." he said smiling. He turned to the man they were assigned to protect. "Tazuna-san, is there a good all-you-can-eat barbeque restaurant in your village?"

* * *

End of chapter 3

Well, how was it? Please leave a review about what you think. Also I have some quick notes. The name _Gansaku Shimei _literally translates to either 'fake name' or 'fake identity'. If you read the bonus, it allowed for some much needed action, even if it wasn't much. Hopefully our group will run into some trouble soon. Wait, did I say 'hopefully'? That wasn't too nice of me. That's all for now, remember to please leave a review!


	4. A Hero Steps Forward

**I don't own Naruto.**

I'm back! Sorry for leaving for a while, but I needed a long break from writing. Anyway, I'm back now, so pretend I never left.

* * *

A Hero Steps Forward

"…I said to find a _boat_, you idiot. What's this?" Sasuke said, staring angrily at Naruto.

They were standing before a small, worn down boat, with a partially ripped sail, and old rotten wood. It was big enough to hold all four of them, just barely. The sail was a dirty white that had been through who knows how many storms. It was washed up on a beach not far from town they had reached earlier that day.

"Well, I asked around town, but nobody there would give us a boat ride that we could afford, so I started wandering along the shore and found this." Naruto grinned with pride. "Now we have our own ship to take us wherever we want!"

Sasuke quietly began loading the supplies he had bought into the boat. As much as he hated Naruto's stupidity, he knew this was probably the best boat they were going to get without spending most of their money.

* * *

The boat ride seemed to take forever as they sat silent in the small boat. Sakura had attempted to start a conversation with Sasuke a few times, only to have him reply with a carefully thought up, short and to-the-point response that would prevent the conversation from being continued.

Naruto didn't seem as hyper as you would think. Instead he was very subdued as he stared out to sea. If the others didn't know him better, they'd say he was actually thinking. Hinata was just as quiet, even though she desperately wanted to talk to Naruto. But every time she thought of something to say, something they could talk about, she just couldn't say it. Maybe it didn't sound like a good subject to talk about, maybe it seemed weird to repeat it aloud after saying it in her mind, but whatever the reason, Hinata was quiet the entire trip.

They were headed north, toward Lightning country. It was a slow trip in such a small boat, and their supplies were dwindling. After what seemed to them an eternity, which was in reality only a few days, they arrived in Lightning Country. Naruto was off the boat before it even reached the dock, jumping as soon as he was sure he wouldn't fall short of his target and end up soaking wet. Hinata smiled for a moment, seeing him back to his old energetic self. She was the first to step off the boat after it had reached the dock. Sakura was next, followed by an irritated Sasuke who was carrying the remaining supplies. Spending several days on a boat with Naruto actually hadn't been as bad as he thought, and Sakura had left him alone after the first day, but he still didn't like being stuck on a small boat with them for so long.

Everyone seemed to shake off the quiet of the boat ride as soon as they were back on land, and Sakura was soon clinging to Sasuke's arm as they walked down the streets of the port city they had arrived in. They didn't know the name of the town, but they had a general idea of where they were in lightning country, having only gone due north on the way here.

The others stopped with confused expressions as Naruto suddenly turned into a poorly-lit alley. He turned around when he realized the others weren't following him, and decided he should probably explain what he was doing.

"Back in Konoha," he began, "I always wanted a hitai-ate, even before I was a genin." The others' looks told him he should continue. "Well, I was walking home one time, and I always took the empty alleys, so that…well anyway, I was in this alley, and this guy stepped out of the shadows. I was scared at first, but then he offered to sell me a hitai-ate of my choice, saying that he could make any of them. I would have bought a Konoha one, but he was charging me extra because…well, I didn't have enough money, so I asked him where I could find him later. That was when he told me that there were a lot of people like him, and that one could be found in the alleys of nearly any city! Then he said I come back when I have more money, and make sure not to tell anyone who was already a Konoha ninja."

As he finished his explanation, he realized the others were staring at him. After taking in all Naruto had just said, Sakura was the first to speak. "Well, I guess we could buy some. It would be nice to actually feel like real ninja, even if we did leave before we officially became genin." They had all left their headbands behind when they left, but it was too late to go back and get them now.

"You dobe!" Sasuke interrupted, "We can't just walk around lightning country wearing leaf village headbands. There's been a lot of tension between leaf and cloud lately, and it could cause us trouble."

"I know that!" _Well, I do now. _"That's why I thought up something different. Just wait and see." With that, he continued into the alley, the others following behind reluctantly. Sure enough, they soon came upon a man offering to sell them hitai-ate. "I'll take four!" he said immediately, after which he paid the man, the price of all four still being significantly less than the one he was offered back in Konoha. "And what village would you like to be from the man asked in shady voice. He was of average height, but it was too dark in the alley to see anything else about him. "Umm…could you leave them blank, please?"

This confused the man, most of his customers usually wanted to be from a certain village. "Wait, you want four _blank _hitai-ate?"

"Yep!" Naruto replied happily.

"Here you go." The man said as he handed them to Naruto, who then passed them around to the others. "I usually use those as templates, and add the symbol when someone asks for one, but I suppose I can make more later."

* * *

It was late as they walked into their one hotel room that night, which they could barely afford. None of them were wearing their new headbands yet, and were too exhausted to do anything thing other than sleep.

They had walked around town most of the day, looking for something to do. Tomorrow they would train, but for now, they wanted to relax. After finding a good place to eat, they had traversed the market, not buying anything due to the high prices. Sasuke seemed interested in a katana he'd found, Sakura was just looking at clothes, Naruto's attention span was too short to stay at a single stand for more than a minute, and Hinata was hurriedly chasing after Naruto, only glimpsing what was for sale before Naruto ran off to another shop.

Working out the sleeping arrangements had been difficult. Naruto wouldn't share a bed with Sasuke, and wanted to be with Sakura, but that would leave Sasuke with Hinata, which Naruto was also strongly against. Hinata wanted to be with Naruto, but said nothing. Sakura wanted to be with Sasuke, but didn't think it wise for Naruto and Hinata to share a bed. Sasuke didn't really care, as long as it wasn't Naruto. In the end, Sakura and Hinata shared a bed, while Naruto and Sasuke…slept on the floor on opposite sides of the room while the second bed remained empty. If the two girls hadn't already been asleep by the time the boys stopped arguing, they might have each gotten a bed to themselves.

* * *

There was a lot of tension in the group the next morning. They hadn't even started training when a fight broke out, just as they found a good clearing.

"Ramen is not just for idiots! Hinata, ramen is good isn't it?"

"Hai." she agreed quietly, relying on a nod of her head to convey her answer.

"She only thinks so because she's always following you around, agreeing blindly with every dumb decision you make!" Sasuke retorted, feeling control of his anger slipping away.

"You're one to talk!" The blonde replied, "Look what you've done to Sakura-chan!"

"What exactly _has _he done to me Naruto?! You're just jealous because Sasuke-kun is much better than you at everything!"

"That's it! I've had enough of your stuck-up attitude!" Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs, "You can just stay here! We're leaving!" With that, he signaled for the other two to follow, not even bothering to look back. Hinata looked at Naruto's retreating back, then over at the others, then back at Naruto.

"Gomenasai" she said firmly with a slight bow before turning and taking off after Naruto. Sakura stared after her for a while, before turning towards Sasuke. She turned in the direction they had left and took a few steps.

Sasuke was thinking how better off things would be alone, when he noticed Sakura had stopped, and had her head drooped, as if about to cry. What she did next, as predictable as it is, truly surprised him. Her head lifted and her eyes were teary, but her voice showed almost no sign of sadness. "I'm staying with Sasuke-kun."

* * *

A menacing figure stood in a tree nearby, having seen the fight between the young ninja. Things were progressing nicely; it wouldn't be long before…

* * *

"Naruto-kun?" came a voice from behind him while he rested in another small, but sunny clearing, far away from _him_.

"Yes, Hinata?" he asked, recognizing her voice.

"W-Where are we going to g-go?"

"We'll find out when we get there." He answered casually, getting to his feet.

"Naruto-kun…"

"Huh?"

"N-Nothing, let's go."

* * *

Sasuke felt a bit strange, and somewhat confused. Why did she want to stay with him? Nobody ever cared about him, but only saw him as an Uchiha. Nobody cared that his whole family had been killed. People always saw him as a jerk, some snob who didn't care about anyone other than himself, when he really had no reason to. She wasn't acting like all the girls did back in Konoha. She didn't want to be with him because he's popular, he could tell by her body language, and the tears in her eyes. She just wanted to be with him.

Sakura fell to her knees, feeling oddly happy, but sad at the same time. The fight had really gotten to her, and her friends were now gone. But she stayed with Sasuke. That made things better. It wasn't exactly the fact that she was with him, she had been with him a long time. It was more the sense that she had chosen to be with him. She had chosen him over everything else, and she was sure it was the right choice.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked first at the hand, then followed the arm up to see Sasuke Standing over her. "Let's go." he said, his voice surprisingly having no hint of irritation or annoyance whatsoever. She was going to be with him now, and while he wasn't exactly excited about it, he seemed to be okay with it, or would she just be fooling herself to say he may even enjoy her staying with him?

* * *

_This isn't good._ A man thought to himself. _He's changing for the worse. I need to do something about that girl._

"Kabuto."

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama?"

"I need you to dispose of miss Haruno Sakura. She's a bad influence on Sasuke-kun."

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto replied before sinking into the ground.

* * *

End of Chapter 4

Well, things finally seem to be picking up a bit. What will happen to our groups as they head their separate ways? Will they ever see each other again?

**Please leave a review! I need reviews!**


	5. A Hero Steps Back

**I don't own Naruto.**

Last chapter was a little short, but I was just anxious to start up my story again, so I stopped it early. Now it continues. I hope this gets up fast enough for everyone.

* * *

A Hero Steps Back

"Where are we going?"

"Water country." He said simply, helping her into the boat as if he had always been a gentleman. Sakura was astonished at his sudden change in behavior. She didn't question it, for fear that it might go away.

* * *

Naruto and Hinata were heading along the coastline at ninja speed. From what they recalled from the academy, they were headed to earth country. It was a long journey, but at ninja speed they could reach it in less than a week, even with a few stops along the way.

Naruto noticed Hinata was messing with something on her head. He turned to her just in time to see her finish adjusting her new headband. She blushed when she realized he was looking at her, but he didn't notice. "It looks good on you." he said with a smile, before putting his own on. Actually, he was just glad she bothered to wear it.

"Let's camp here, it's getting pretty dark." Naruto suggested, walking over to the edge of a cliff. Hinata stopped running as well, and walked towards him. "We left Lightning country about an hour ago, so-" she froze as she reached the edge of the cliff. She was now standing next to Naruto, looking out at the most beautiful view of the ocean she had ever seen. Orange light danced on the water as a gentle breeze blew through her hair. The moment ended when the sun sank behind some mountains to the west, and her mind returned to reality.

"It's dark now, we should get camp set up…" She shivered. "…and it's getting pretty cold. There must be a North wind that's blowing the cold ocean air all along the continent's northern coast."

Naruto began unpacking the tent and setting it up. Even with his intelligence, it didn't take long for him to realize: they didn't bring a tent! "Umm…Hinata? I…uhh…sorta forgot to bring a tent." he said, hoping she wouldn't take it too badly. She didn't seem to mind all that much. Of course she was disappointed in having to sleep on the ground, but she didn't blame Naruto for it.

They picked spots on the ground that seemed to be a little more comfortable—whether it was because of soft grass, or because of a lack of rocks—and lay down trying to sleep. Naruto unexpectedly broke the silence a few minutes later.

"Hinata, tomorrow we'll train some before continuing. I wanna see if I can figure out that jutsu from before." It wasn't until now that he realized the scroll had been on his back the entire trip, so he took it off and placed it down in front of him where he could see it. It wasn't long after before they were fast asleep.

* * *

Sasuke woke up early the next morning, to find that the wind had stopped. Their boat wasn't moving. _Well, might as well get some training in. _he thought, before stepping out of the boat onto the calm water. He walked far enough away that the boat (or Sakura) wouldn't get hit, but close enough that it was easily within eyesight. He made several hand seals, and began perfecting the jutsu he had learned when they left Konoha. He could successfully use it now, but its power and accuracy weren't very good. He began working on accuracy first.

Sakura woke up a little later, futilely trying to hold onto that last wisp of a pleasant dream that never wants to stay. Finally giving up, she opened her eyes to notice something wrong. _Where's Sasuke-kun?! We're on a boat, he couldn't have just left. Did he fall overboard?! What if he can't swim?! _Before she could heroically dive into the water, however, she noticed a red glow out of the corner of her eye, turning just in time to see a few bits of flame fade from existence. _Ohhhh…theeeere's Sasuke, standing on the water. Wait, what?_

"Sasuke-kun!" she yelled loud enough for him to hear her. "When did you learn to walk on water like that?"

"When I was little!" he yelled back, not used to using such a loud voice. "My dad taught me!"

"Can you teach me?" she asked. If it weren't for the fact that they were in the middle of the ocean, they would both be embarrassed to yell back and forth like this. "Sure!" he replied with a final yell before returning to the boat.

_Why is he so nice all of a sudden? _She couldn't help but wonder as he started instructing her.

* * *

Naruto woke up to realize something was different. When his eyes finally got focused and he began to think better, he realized that the scroll was no longer in front of him. He adjusted his head slightly to see where Hinata had been sleeping. She was also gone, but this calmed him a bit as the most obvious possible scenario popped into his mind. _She must have woken up before me and wanted to work on the jutsu she learned from the scroll._

As he thought this, he realized that he had slept very comfortably last night, despite the cold. _Wait, that's another thing. It's really warm… _He then realized the truth of the situation. The scroll _was_ still where he had left it. Hinata _was _still in her spot. The difference was, so was he!

A quick looked confirmed it. Hinata was sleeping peacefully against his chest with his arms wrapped around her. As comfortable as he was, he knew he had to move before she woke up. Trying his best not to wake her, he began to pull his arms away when he heard something that he didn't expect to hear.

"Don't leave." was the begging request that came from the soft bundle he had been holding. She was now holding his arm in place where it had been, her closed eyes showing that she was awake, but at the same time still half-asleep. All he could do, all he wanted to do, was lay there and enjoy the warmth that protected them both from the chilly morning air.

* * *

Sasuke was amazed at how quickly she picked it up. He had to catch her once when she stepped out of the boat, which resulted in a blush from her, but other than that, she had it down perfectly. _She might actually end up being a great shinobi after all…

* * *

_

"Naruto-kun," she called to him as he failed another attempt at getting his technique to do anything. They hadn't spoken of that morning yet, both still needed a little time to think things out, but for now Naruto was training while Hinata reviewed the scroll. "You're performing the jutsu correctly, you're just using the wrong target." she happily explained. "It says that jutsu only works on things created with chakra." She put the scroll down and made some had signs, placing her hands on the ground afterward. A wall of rock as tall as her and five times as wide grew from the ground in front of her.

Naruto stared for a moment. He hadn't really known which jutsu she had chosen to learn until now. He then gave her a questioning look, not realizing why she was doing this.

Hinata positioned herself directly between him and the wall, with about ten feet between her and Naruto. "Try your technique on this wall." she said with a grin.

_I know she's been less timid lately, and she stopped stuttering, but this is too much. _"You want me to use it on _you_?!" he questioned, receiving only a nod. "But what if it hurts you?"

"I already told you it won't, silly. Trust me." He trusted her. A bit reluctantly, he used the jutsu, swing his arm in her direction. A gentle breeze blew her hair a little, but nothing really happened.

"You did it, Naruto-kun!" she said excitedly. Seeing him confused, she turned around and walked over to the wall. With a small push, the top half of the wall fell to the ground. The wall was cut cleanly in half. They both walked over to a tree and leaned against it, and Hinata began to blush slightly. Now was the time to talk about that morning.

"Naruto-kun, "

"Hinata, about this morning, I'm sorry, I don't even remember how I ended up there, but why did you stop me from leaving?"

A furious blush swept across her face as she thought of words to explain. She thought of none, but he was sitting next to her, waiting for her answer, so she answered him. "N—Naruto-kun, I've wanted—I've wanted you to hold me f-for so l-long. I—I just—didn't know if you ever would again. P—please, please don't b—be mad. I just—I just want to be with you."

Naruto felt an unfamiliar feeling, one he couldn't pt a name to. Looking down at the beautiful girl sitting beside him, he had to say something. She looked scared, scared of what he would think, of how he may respond. He couldn't let her be scared. He couldn't let her feel hurt. "Hinata-chan…"

She looked up at him instantly with hopeful lavender eyes, begging him to him to continue in that same tone of voice that made her question if this was just a dream. Begging him not to throw in a 'but' or an 'even though' somewhere in his answer to a question she hadn't asked.

"…I'll always be with you." He leaned towards her slightly, doing what he felt was right. The moment was ruined, however, when he realized she had fainted, and was lying on the ground, her face a shade of crimson rivaled by nothing he had ever seen. He gently carried her to where they had slept, and went to wet a cloth in to ocean, not caring about the arduous climb he had to endure in both directions. When he returned, he placed the wet cloth on her head, and sat next to her, only able to think how beautiful she looked while she lay peacefully in the scattered sunlight.

* * *

The wind had picked up, and Sasuke and Sakura had reached the shores of Water country the next morning. An unknown figure approached them as they disembarked from the boat on a remote shore.

"Well, Sasuke-kun, you and your little friend seem to have made it here quite quickly."

"Who are you, and what do you want with us?" Sasuke questioned, stepping forward and drawing a kunai.

"Now now, Sasuke-kun, is that any way to make new friends? You really would be happier if you smiled once in a while, but then again, that's why I'm here…I can't have you happy, now can I?"

"Who are you, and what do you want?" Sasuke repeated, starting to feel angry. The stranger, had grey hair in a ponytail, and wore large glasses. His face and voice both gave him a kind appearance, but his words said otherwise.

No answer came, and Sasuke lost control of his anger. He charged straight at the man with the kunai, disappearing in time to avoid the multiple shuriken thrown at him, and reappearing behind him angle, still in a full sprint towards the stranger. By the time he was close enough to strike with the kunai, the man had already turned and blocked his attack.

As he blocked, a shocked expression overtook the man's face. There was a kunai embedded deep in the center of his back. _When did he? When he dodged the shuriken? I didn't even notice him throw it, I was already turning around before he even moved. I'll need to be a little more careful…_

The stranger smiled as he disappeared in a puff of smoke. At the same time, Sasuke heard a yell, and knew he had just made a big mistake. "Sakura-chan!" he yelled, rushing to the boat without a second thought.

As he arrived at the boat, he was horrified at what he found. Sakura's body lay in the sand, covered in blood and skewered from head to toe with senbon. A voice called to him seemingly out of nowhere: "My name is Yakushi Kabuto. I trust you'll remember it." The voice then seemed to fade away, leaving no trace that Kabuto had ever been there, except for the body of Haruno Sakura laying motionless in the sand.

* * *

End of chapter 5

There now wasn't that a bittersweet chapter? I'm already working on the next one, so try not to complain about the chapter length. I like how this chapter turned out. So…what'dya think?

**Please leave a review! Comments, questions, rants, something! I need inspiration to write and the last chapter I wrote got no reviews! 0.0**


	6. End of a Life

**I don't own Naruto.**

Thanks for all your reviews! I'll spend more time writing now, and a little less time playing videogames. I know this chapter was really late, sorry. '

I've never been good with geography. Thank VenomLord for pointing out the difference between Wave and Water country. When they left Konoha, they went to Wave country. Now they took the boat to Water country.

Anyway, I won't delay you any further, here's chapter 6…

* * *

End of a Life

Sasuke slowly approached her and checked her vital signs carefully. No heartbeat. No breathing. No movement. He turned and ran to find a town as fast as he could. As smart as he was, he knew nothing about medical ninjutsu. All he could do was destroy. He knew it was over, but in his mind he just couldn't believe it. _Sakura-chan! Don't be dead! I'll do—something… just please don't die…like everyone else… _He was probably a good mile away already, tearing through the forest, not knowing whether he would find a town or not…

Back at the beach, a dark figure approached the lifeless girl. His hands moved for a fraction of a second, as he muttered something under his breath. He didn't like using the technique he had just used. It was…beneath him.

Almost immediately, the girl's body, blood and all, seemed to simply disappear. _Honestly, if Sasuke doesn't awaken his sharingan soon, he may never learn to identify genjutsu._

Instead of wasting his time to help, he calmly ran in the direction Sasuke had taken, moving at a leisurely pace that was much faster than Sasuke's. He'd catch up to him soon.

* * *

_Where am I? What happened? Let's see…we were training, and then we went to rest by a tree, and…_

Her thoughts were interrupted as two bright blue eyes appeared over her. "Naruto-kun!" she exclaimed gleefully as the previous day rushed back into her mind. In an instant she had thrown her arms around his neck and was hugging him with what would be considered a large amount of force for the shy girl.

After what seemed a long while in his comforting embrace she sat up straight to look around. It wasn't until now that she realized that this wasn't the same place they had camped yesterday. The nearby cliff had been replaced by a rocky beach, being repeatedly caressed by the pounding force of the ocean's waves. The lush grass that had covered the ground was now soft soil, with a few weeds strewn about. She sat next to what was hours ago a warm fire, reduced to only burning embers by the passage of time. "Naruto-kun, w-where are we?"

"Well, to be honest, you were sorta asleep for a whole day, so I carried y-"

"A—A whole day?" she stuttered out, not believing what she had just heard.

"Yeah, you must have been exhausted from all the training. I'm not exactly sure where we are now, but I followed the coast here, so we should be able to figure it out."

Standing up, Hinata walked over to the water's edge, Naruto a few steps behind her. Looking in both directions, there was only ocean, and in the distance the faint outline of mountains. She immediately knew where they were, though it took Naruto a few seconds to realize it. This was the tip of the Northern Peninsula; there should be a village not far to the south.

A sudden cold wind sprayed Hinata's face with a freezing mist of saltwater, causing her to shiver. Konoha had always been really warm, but as she pull her hood over her head, the returning warmth made her glad that she always wore her favorite jacket. Turning her head to look at Naruto, she noticed an odd look on his face.

"Naruto-kun?"

"Huh? Oh, umm…I uhh…you…" He stuttered out, paying more attention to his thoughts than his words. 'She's adorable with that hood on…' It was probably just the fact that he had never seen her wear it before, but it look good none the less.

"I th-think there's a village nearby. Should we stop there for a while to rest?" Hinata suggested, bringing him back to reality.

"Good idea! I'm starving! I hope they have ramen!" He yelled enthusiastically.

"Naruto-kun, they probably don't…sell…" she trailed off when she realized he was in too excited to hear her, as he was already holding her hand and leading her away from the ocean, towards town. She just stayed quiet for the moment, enjoying the fact that his hand held hers.

* * *

"I see you've returned, did all go according to plan?" a voice asked as a figure stepped out of the shadows.

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama, although there is one last matter to take care of."

"And what would that be? I gave you only one task to complete." Orochimaru asked, wondering what he was talking about.

"Well, you see, Orochimaru-sama, I regret to inform you that…you are no longer of any use to me." Kabuto said with a smirk, shifting his head slightly so that a glare flashed across his glasses.

"Insolent brat!" Orochimaru shouted as he charged at him at full speed with a hand sign prepared. At the moment he reached him, he turned around sharply, a snake emerging from his sleeve in the direction he had come from. The snakes caught someone and lifted him into the air.

Kabuto hung in the air, snakes coiling around him, preventing him from moving. "Oh Kabuto, did you really think I would fall for a trick like that? I know you're good enough to match even Hatake Kakashi, but I know how you fight. You can't fool me by disguising a lifeless corpse as yourself."

"You would think that, wouldn't you?" a voice behind him whispered in his ear.

Quickly recalling his snakes, he jumped to the side, but not fast enough. He felt an immense pain in his right arm. It wouldn't move, his muscles had but severed.

"It appears as though you are no longer able to activate the tattoo on your left arm, Orochimaru-sama." This comment infuriated Orochimaru. He was being talked down to, as if he were a genin.

"This ends now!" Orochimaru screamed, who now was wielding a sword with his tongue. He slashed at Kabuto who wasn't able to move in time to avoid a deep cut to his side. Kabuto leapt back out of range, grasping his injured side without taking his attention off of Orochimaru. Orochimaru threw the sword at him, which he was able to avoid. It wasn't until Orochimaru stopped attacking that he realized his mistake.

Orochimaru stood laughing evilly, his left hand forming a one-handed sign. Kabuto's feet were surrounded by a thick layer of rock which anchored them to the ground.

"I'll finish you now!" Orochimaru yelled enraged, forming several more single-handed seals. As Kabuto saw a large spike rise from the earth pointed directly at him, he made some hand signs in a desperate attempt to escape. The Spike fired toward him, his chakra scalpel now active. He cut through the rock just in time to move out of the way. But even as the spike flew harmlessly past him, he felt something pierce his heart.

Orochimaru had called his sword to him, having it stab Kabuto in the back. Kabuto collapsed to his knees with his head hung down. As he was about to collapse, he lifted his head to look straight at his killer.

Orochimaru was shocked. A malevolent smile covered Kabuto's face for a moment, then the smile faded from a different face, one that Orochimaru knew belonged to one of his many underlings.

An explosion tag on Orochimaru's back sent a deafening roar echoing through the dimly lit chamber. He managed to get to his feet, and turned to look at Kabuto standing behind him, completely unscathed.

"That's enough fighting for now," Kabuto said as he turned to walk away, "I have more important matters to attend to, I'll just let the poison from yesterday's dinner finish you off." As he left the room, he heard Orochimaru collapse to the ground, a lifeless corpse. He'd have to remember to have someone clean that up later.

* * *

Sasuke collapsed to his knees, giving up on fining a town. He realized that even if he found one now, it was too late. She was gone. He would have been crying if he hadn't taught himself not to after that incident when he was young.

His head raised when he noticed someone land in front of him. All the sadness seemed to disappear as it was instantly replaced with pure anger. He had already jumped back and was making seals when his wrist was grasped firmly, preventing him from making the last one. The man ha managed to close the distance and immobilize him in the blink of an eye.

"We need to talk" the man said calmly as Sasuke was stopped from reaching for a weapon.

"I won't talk with you!" Sasuke yelled, full of murderous rage. _I'll kill him! I can't let him get away!_

"I will teach you to be strong." the man continued, ignoring whatever it was Sasuke had said, "I will make you stronger than Kabuto, but then…you must kill me in combat." His voice saddened with the last part, and Sasuke stopped struggling. "But first, there's something we need to talk about."

Sasuke's attention had been caught by now, and although confused, decided to listen. He was silent indicating that his brother continue, but gave an out-of-place look that said 'try anything funny and I'll kill you.'

"Do you want to know why I did it?" Sasuke was silent. He had never really considered it that much, because to him, it didn't really matter. But now he would listen, only partly by his own choice.

"It all started a month before you were born. There used to be a demon living in Konoha, a six-tailed weasel, who used lightning to attack his opponents. While this demon was dangerous, he never left his territory near the edge of Fire Country. But that all changed shortly before you were born. For some reason, the demon left its territory, and moved very close to Konoha. The village was left with no choice but to get rid of it. One ninja alone was able to weaken the beast, cutting through the beast's lightning, causing the beast to get hit instead. But the demon was only unconscious, and needed to be sealed. Because the man was somewhat acquainted with our clan, our father heard what had happened, and stepped forward. He insisted that the demon be sealed in his son…in me. He intended to use the demon's power to revive the might of the Uchihas, so that we may rise far above the Hyuugas. Had you been born a month earlier, you would have ended up cursed with its power. The demon was a greater burden on me than father could have possibly known. As he trained me, I grew stronger, but so did the demon. There were times when it was painful to suppress the demon. When I told father what was wrong, he didn't even care. He saw me only as a demon on a leash, and I soon grew distant from him, keeping to myself. I was able to use the demon's power to improve my sharingan, even unlocking the mangekyou sharingan with some of its chakra. Then one day, it managed to take control…" He paused for a moment, recalling a memory of the aftermath. Sasuke held his thoughts until the story was finished.

"I was alone in darkness, like a dream, when I heard you call out from somewhere. I awoke to find myself standing over the bodies of our parents, and that's when I decided: I had to be killed... Shortly after the door opened and your silhouette stood in the doorway: …and you would have to be the one to kill me. I fed you hatred, knowing it would make you stronger, knowing it would give you the purpose of killing me. I left Konoha, awaiting the day our clan would be avenged."

"Now I have control of the demon who feeds on hatred, and I find you have left and face hardships of your own. I don't want your life to end up as mine has, so I will make you strong enough to defeat Kabuto, and then, defeat me."

For the first time in a long time, Sasuke felt like he had a brother again. He had finally been reunited with what little family he had left. But the hatred the had been planted in him at young age had taken root, and wasn't going to leave.

"Fine, if you can make me stronger then him, if you can allow me to deal him an agonizing death, I will let you train me. But as soon as he's dead, you and that demon of yours are going with him!" Sasuke replied in a serious tone. Then he smirked, and some of the tension lightened. "So it's now, after all this time that you _finally _agree to train me…" He still had more questions, but they could wait, he had family again.

* * *

Sakura awoke to the sight of a poorly lit, wooden ceiling. Her mind needed a bit to catch up with her, so she didn't think of what had happened or where she was. A woman's voice came from somewhere in the room.

"Ah, you're awake. Did you take that little boat all the way here by yourself? Poor girl, you must have collapsed from exhaustion. Well don't worry, your in good hands now."

Sakura was still in a daze, and was just able to make out what was being said before slipping back out of consciousness.

* * *

Sakura sat up quickly. _Did I dream that? No, this must be the same place, the ceiling is the same…Sasuke! Is he here too? _Looking around the room, there seemed to be an oven, some beds, a few shelves, but no Sasuke. It appeared she was in a one room house, though it was quite large. Hearing the door open, she turned to see a kind-looking woman enter the room, probably in her forties or fifties, wearing a worn brown robe worn by those who cannot afford better clothes.

"Excuse me," Sakura asked, "but who are you, and where's Sasuke?"

"My name is Isuki, and by Sasuke, do you mean the young man from Konoha who brought you here?"

"Yeah, that must be him! Where is he? Is he hurt?" she questioned, eager to know if he was alright.

"No, he wasn't hurt at all." (_Just as I thought, Sasuke kicked that guys butt!) _"He said he was leaving Water Country, he's probably already out at sea."

"Oh" was all she said, a sad hint in her voice as she looked away. That sounded just like him. He lead her here to get rid of her, so he wouldn't have to put up with her anymore. Well, there was nothing she could do about it now…but if she ever ran into him that jerk was gonna pay!

"So…where am I?" she asked, still unaware of her location.

"You're at my house, not far from town. The shore isn't far away either. Now why would a sweet girl such as yourself travel all the way here to Water Country?"

Sakura checked to find that anything that identified her as a ninja had been removed, and was presumably in the unfamiliar backpack next to her. She sighed. "I'd rather not talk about it now if you don't mind…"

* * *

End of chapter 6

Another chapter done, huzzah! Anyway, I'm making up this story as I write it, so I'm sorry if you find any inconsistencies. The next chapter will be next.

**Please leave reviews!**


	7. Strings Reattached

**I don't own Naruto.**

**IMPORTANT:** I know this is a bit of a torturous thing of me to do…A six month time skip has taken place between the previous chapter and this one. Not everything will be explained immediately, and what happened in the six months will be revisited in later chapters. It's a literary device thingy. Just read.

* * *

Strings Reattached

Five Figures approached the gates of Konoha.

"I should probably tell you," said the taller one in front, "there have been a few notable changes since you left…"

"What changes?" came a quick reply from a female voice.

"Well, about six months ago, an 'incident' occurred, which caused the Hokage to retire. I won't get into the details, but I will say that he took a sudden interest in his Grandson's training." He paused for a moment.

"Anyway, he called in a favor from one of his students, asking her to be the new Hokage. It took quite a bit of money and sake, but she was finally convinced to take the job. However, his timing wasn't very good, because the ceremony conflicted with the Chunnin exam. All citizens of Konoha had to be in attendance, so he was forced to have the chunnin exam moved elsewhere. Do you understand what this means?"

"You talk too much, _sensei_…" came an uncaring reply from one of the figures.

He shrugged off the comment and continued with his speech. "It _means…_that all your old classmates are still genin too! You'll have to compete against them, of course, but it will be good for you to see some familiar faces."

They had now reached the gates, which were wide open due to the upcoming chunnin exam, though still guarded well. Before the guard could ask anything, the tall one handed him five pass permits. They contained much less information than the guards were accustomed to, but had still been approved by the Hokage. Both guards simultaneously pictured her with a sake bottle hidden under her desk, signing any paper handed to her. Suppressing sighs, they looked over the ninja carefully.

The tallest in front appeared to be their teacher. He looked relatively old, with dark hair. He wore ordinary looking clothing, and had a backpack on. The guards knew they had never seen him before, but he still looked oddly familiar to them. Of course, that was the point of genjutsu.

The one on the far left was a fairly short boy, wearing a black jacket with a hood covering his hair. He was grinning widely, and had whisker marks on his face that may have just been a trick of the light. He wore dark green pants, with plenty of pockets on them.

To his right was a girl of about the same height, with raven-colored hair, wearing a creamy-white jacket with no identifying marks on it. Her jacket was left unzipped, revealing a black shirt underneath. She was wearing black pants, but the most identifying feature was the pair of rectangle rimmed glasses she wore. She was looking down at the ground in front of her nervously, causing a glare on the glasses to hide her eyes.

The third was another girl. She had short pink hair, confident emerald eyes, and was dressed entirely in red and white. She carried a red bag by a strap that hung diagonally across her body from her shoulder. She had bandages wrapped around both of her arms, which reached from her wrists to her shoulders.

The last ninja wore a black t-shirt and black shorts, and his arms and legs were completely wrapped in bandages. His hair and eyes were both black, and he had a mocking smirk on his face.

"Village?" one of the guards asked, finally done looking them over, noticing their blank headbands.

The tall one was the one who replied. "The Village Hidden in the Past".

* * *

"Good. I see you've already gotten word of the new law the Hokage was just able to get passed." The sickly looking ninja scribbled something on his clipboard before continuing. "A few teams hadn't known about it, and had to send for another genin from their village. I take it one of those four is a medic-nin?"

"Of course." Shimei replied half-heartedly, while really hoping that one of the four knew at least _some_ basic medical ninjutsu.

"Okay. Your team is now registered to take the Chunnin exams. The first exam will take place at eight on the second floor of that large building two days from now." He pointed to a large building nearby, the Ninja Academy. "Do you need help finding a place to stay until then?"

"Not thanks, H-" Shimei answered, having to stop himself from saying the man's name. Yep, young Hayate Gekko hadn't changed a bit, except for the slight increase in height.

"We've already got a place."

* * *

The five arrived at an abandoned part of town not long after. It was a familiar place, the place where an entire clan had met its end at the had of one of its own members: The Uchiha Residence.

"Okay everyone, we're here! Find a room and make yourselves at home!"

Sasuke sent an angry glare at his sensei. "Hey! This is _my _place, so don't act like you're in charge of it!" He paused, thinking of an order to give… "What he said." The others turned and continued to search for rooms.

* * *

Sasuke walked silently towards the main building. His head was swimming with memories of his childhood, of the misery he suffered in this place. He realized it didn't seem as bad now. He knew the truth. Still, a feeling of loneliness haunted the empty complex.

Sakura wasn't far behind Sasuke. She had followed him hoping he would help her find a room, but when she noticed his blank expression, she decided to leave him to his thoughts, and follow silently.

It didn't take long for Sasuke to lead them to two adjacent rooms, to the right of the building's entrance. As Sakura, looked around her new room, she wondered if the others had any trouble finding some rooms. She was pretty sure they didn't know their way around, but they had left at a normal medium-fast pace, unlike Sasuke. Oh well, maybe Sasuke would back to his old self after they unpacked.

* * *

Naruto and Hinata sat at the edge of the dock, their feet hanging over the water. Hinata's head rested peacefully on Naruto's shoulder as they stared out over the pond.

"Naruto-kun? They- They don't have to find out we're sharing a room, right?" Hinata asked, reluctant to bring up the subject.

"No, not yet." he answered, allowing her to relax. The others still didn't know they were a couple, after all, they only just met back up a few days ago.

A splash drew their attention. They looked around but they were still alone. A fish had just jumped in the pond. "Let's go back to the room now. We still need to unpack our stuff before dinner." Naruto suggested, standing up. Hinata sighed softly when her head had to leave his comfortable shoulder. But he was right, and she was hungry enough to not want to be late for dinner.

Their room was just around the corner from the pond, at the back of the building. It wasn't the biggest room, but it was still of good size, and was probably the nicest. To the left was the pond, and to the right, at the end of the hall, was the kitchen. However, the kitchen had been cleaned out of food, and the five of them had arranged to meet out front and eat out for dinner.

* * *

Shimei stumbled out of the poor looking house just inside the entrance of the Uchiha sector. He hadn't wanted to walk _all _the way to the main building, so he just took up residence in the nearest house. _Why did I have to say an hour? Why not three or four, or tomorrow maybe? Well, that nap wasn't much, but I guess I shouldn't complain about getting food._

"So where are we gonna eat?" he asked the genin, patching up his half-faded genjutsu.

"Ichiraku's! Definitely Ichiraku's!" Naruto proclaimed, remembering the delicious smell of ramen that wafted from the small shop. His heart sunk when he was barely outvoted by one vote.

"Nah…I want…" Shimei put a finger to his chin in an attempt to think. "Let's get barbeque."

"Sure." Sasuke approved, Sakura nodding in agreement. All the while Naruto was shouting angrily while Hinata attempted to hold him back from attacking one or both of the other two guys. The scene was ignored by the other three as they turned to leave.

After Hinata calmed Naruto down a little, they headed off towards the BBQ place, Naruto pouting and complaining the entire way.

* * *

"Cut it out, Ino. You know that's just how Shikamaru is." came a voice through a mouthful of food. A skinny boy across from the speaker had his head propped up on his hand as he stared lazily out the window.

"Well he could at least help for once instead of trying to tell us what to do while he lays around like nothing matters!"

Sasuke had just stepped through the doors, but nearly tripped over Sakura when he immediately left after seeing where the shrill yell came from. "Sakura-chan, it's one of _them_."

She looked at him like he was crazy for a moment, as did the others, before she peeked inside. "What? You mean Ino?"

"Maybe if…" Sasuke mumbled to himself as rearranged his hair into a style that made him look strange.

"Sasuke, what are doing now?" Naruto asked, obviously still upset that he could be eating ramen right now.

"Naruto, we agreed not to draw attention, remember?" Sakura said catching on, and placing a low-level genjutsu on herself to change her hair and eye color.

It took him a minute, but he remembered. He already had his hood up though, so he waited impatiently for the others before running in and seating himself at a booth. Ino looked up at Sasuke as he walked passed, but luckily, she didn't seem to recognize him.

* * *

"Hmm? Ino, something wrong?" Shikamaru asked, more in search of information than out of concern.

"No, it's nothing. I'm just seeing things again." He knew exactly what was wrong. From the time she was assigned to his team, every time she saw someone with dark-hair she would yell something such as 'Sasuke-kun! You're back!' or 'I knew you would come back for me!' He had to put up with it for several months before she finally accepted that Sasuke wasn't coming back. Now he only noticed her eyes light with hope for a second before they dulled again as reality caught up. He didn't like seeing her like that, and would have tried to console her if it wasn't so troublesome.

But this time, he had also thought for a moment that it had really been the young Uchiha, casually walking into a Konoha barbeque restaurant. He quickly threw out that possibility, and focused on more important things. That was a team of four shinobi that had just passed by their table. That would be the competition in a couple days.

"…and that ramen was really good, but not quite as good as the ramen from…"

_So much for getting information on the enemy. _Shikamaru thought after hearing them talk about food for several minutes. _It's like a conversation with Chouji…

* * *

_

"Hinata-chan, why don't you visit your family tomorrow? I'm sure they miss you." Naruto asked as he lay awake in their large bed, Hinata laying only a foot or so away.

"Well, I would like to see them, but…but I don't think they'll even remember me. It seems like it's been so long, and I left without telling anyone. They probably wouldn't want to see me…"

"I'm sure they want to see you. It will be fine. I'll go with you, and afterwards, I'll treat you to ramen at Ichiraku's."

"Arigato, Naruto-kun." She knew the ramen was more for him than it was for her, but he was going to help her visit home, and it was the thought that counts, after all.

Within a few moments, the last two of the group drifted into a deep sleep, tired out from their long journey to Konoha. Sasuke, however, wasn't enjoying his sleep as much as the others.

* * *

Sasuke stood in the empty void he had visited many times in the last half-year. It wasn't the void itself, but the same memory of it that had shown up many times in his dreams due to the training he had endured.

True, it was a rather unusual use for genjutsu, but in the world of Tsukuyomi, he could be fed huge volumes of information in what was really only a matter of seconds. His head ached as his body was forced through the motions of a variety of jutsu and fighting styles. Such a way of training had taken quite a toll on his mind, but the results were amazing.

In one week alone he would have usually mastered at least five difficult jutsu, as well as an entire fighting style. His body knew them so well that it could perform them instinctively, allowing him to strategize as he fights.

Another part of his training had been to awaken his sharingan. His brother would perform one of three different ninjutsu. Sasuke would have to identify it by the hand signs in order to avoid it. His brother's speed was so great that his hand signs went unseen by the average eye, so through this training Sasuke was able to awaken his sharingan.

At the moment, Sasuke was running through a defensive taijutsu style. Each time the faceless ninja attacked, Sasuke would retaliate by blocking with such speed and force in the right location that his opponent would sustain injuries. After only a few counters, the enemy was left unable to attack, and faded from existence as a new enemy materialized for him to fight.

Sasuke smirked, this was only a dream, a memory of Tsukuyomi, not the actual thing, but aside from the painful headache…it was pretty fun.

* * *

End of chapter 7

**Please leave reviews!**

Well, how was it? Don't worry, you will get to see what took place during those sixth months. I know there are a lot of questions I left unanswered. But you don't want to read about six straight months of training, do you? So just sit back, relax, and enjoy the upcoming chunnin exams.

**Please leave a review!**


	8. Decisions Revisited

**I don't own Naruto.**

Next chapter has arrived! All your reviews helped convince me to spend more time writing. I know that anything over an hour seems like a long wait for the next chapter, but a couple days is comparatively fast. Thanks to a suggestion from Kumomaru, I will be adding really tiny previews at the end of each chapter. I probably shouldn't just clump all this information into a single paragraph, but too lazy to do otherwise. This chapter is sorta a filler(Please don't hit 'Back' yet!), but a whole day is too long to ignore and too short to skip over. It's not _completely _a filler, so please read it. I personally sorta like some fillers, but not everyone seems to share that opinion. Wait, I've gotten off topic again haven't I…oh well. Begin reading.

* * *

Decisions Revisited

"Hanabi…W-what are you saying?"

"I'm saying I don't know you! And even if I used to, you…don't live here anymore, so just leave!"

Hinata's eyes were looking only at the ground as she spoke, just as they did such a long time ago, though this time it wasn't entirely timidity. If that were the only problem, she would by now easily be able to look her sister in the eye. It wasn't until her sister answered the door that she realized the situation. She wasn't just returning from a trip or a mission. She _did_ realize that she had left her family and Konoha, but now in her mind, it was being rephrased as having _abandoned_ her family and _run away from_ Konoha.

It was Naruto's arm appearing around her that stopped her from falling to her knees and crying, struggling to swim to the surface of the sea of guilt that she herself had created.

"Let's go, you seem hungry." Naruto suggested, trying help Hinata-chan get away from the Hyuuga mansion. If it hadn't been for her, if he had been alone here, he would have already been in a fight seconds after Hanabi had spoken. He had to use all his willpower to stop himself from yelling and tackling the little brat. But he had a feeling that doing so would upset Hinata-chan more, and he could tell that for the first time in a long time she was already on the verge of shedding painful tears.

As they were turning to leave, Hinata saw something that temporarily brought her out of her current mindset. "Hanabi, is t-that a leaf headband? B-But you can't be a g-genin. Y-You're only-"

"That doesn't concern you!" the young Hyuuga yelled before slamming the door, leaving Hinata and Naruto no option other than to leave. Naruto mistook the final outburst as arrogance, but Hinata knew better. She was very well acquainted with her sister's arrogance, and that wasn't it. In her own weird way…that was modesty.

* * *

Naruto and Hinata walked silently down the street of Konoha, his arm still around her. As Naruto was about to speak, a large green blur rushed past them in the opposite direction. Soon afterwards, they noticed another ninja headed their way. Half of his face was covered by a mask, while his left eye was covered by his headband. He walked at an average pace while lazily reading a red book. As he walked past, he looked away from his book for just a moment, straight at Naruto. The moment passed, and they all continued walking without having missed a step.

_Did he…no my hood is still up…but why… _Naruto decided to let the thought slip away, and focus on more important things. Once again, he turned to talk to Hinata-chan, only to be interrupted again.

"Gomennasai, Naruto-kun." came a soft apology from the girl at his side.

"Hmm?" was all he could respond with. Not only was it sudden and unexpected, but while he waited for her to continue, he was unable to think of a reason behind it.

* * *

"Ha! Looks like I won this one, Kakashi! I guess I'm just too fast, even for you!"

"Huh? You say something?" was his apathetic reply as he entered the intersection where Gai had stopped. He took a few more seconds to reach a stopping place in his red book before closing it to speak. "Well, if you don't mind, I have something I need to take care of. That familiar call echoed through the street as he sped off in a direction unknown even to him: "Same time tomorrow, eh, Kakashi?"

* * *

"For the last time, NO!" a voice thundered from a nearby room and into the hallway where Kakashi had just arrived. _Still pressing the issue? Why don't you just give up, Sarutobi? You've been at it all week, and this is your last chance. You're not going to change her mind._

"What you're suggesting is not only highly irresponsible on your part but also very dangerous! There's no way I'm going to allow any more than I already have!"

"Very well. I'll be back again in ten minutes." the old man replied politely. The door suddenly opened, and the previous Hokage stepped out. He gave Kakashi a 'be careful if you're going in there' look, and proceeded down the hallway.

Kakashi warily peeked his head in the door. "Umm…Hokage-sama…you wanted to see me?"

"Ah, Kakashi, come in." said a calm voice that sounded nothing like the Tsunade from a moment ago. "I have a small favor to ask of you. As you know, team eleven does not have an official jounin instructor. For the time being, I am assigning you to their team, being one of the few jounin who is capable of leading such a team. When a replacement for you is found, you may choose to return to completing missions, or if you desire, stay with the team."

"Don't tell me you…you don't seriously intend to…Tsunade, this is ridiculous!"

"I fell the same way, but Sarutobi does make a good point. As much as I don't want to allow it, I really have no right to stop this, even as Hokage not all decisions are mine to make." Tsunade's face saddened a little as she rested her head in her hands, dismissing Kakashi after handing him an envelope containing the necessary information. Sarutobi had come and asked her permission even though they both knew he didn't need it. She had kept refusing, but she knew that even if she continued to, he would just act without it. The sad memories that snuck their way into her thoughts reminded her that there were some things no amount of power could manage to change…

"Tsunade! Tsunade-sama!" A familiar face flew past the doorway and a loud crash was heard. Moments later a young woman with a pig in her arms was standing in the doorway, covered in light bruises. "Tsunade-sama, you have to help! I can't find Tonton anywhere!" Her cheeks were flushed, and she probably would have tripped if she had taken another step.

Tsunade just stared at her, blinked a few times, and continued staring. The hilarious scene had certainly gotten her out of her bad mood, but she was a little too shocked to burst into laughter. "Shizune? …….. Have you…had any sake today?"

Shizune searched her mind for a moment before pulling out a blurry memory from early that morning…

_Flashback_

_Her eyes opened slowly as the room came into focus. It was mainly white; there was a desk, a few chairs, not much else. Numerous medical reports were scattered on the desk._

That's right, Tsunade was helping me finish some medical reports late last night…_ She glanced down at her watch. _Noon already! I've got to get going…gee, I'm thirsty…where's my water…_ Still half asleep, she grabbed a the bottle that was setting nearby on the desk and drank every drop of it. Still worried about being late, she scooped up Tonton (who was still sleeping) and hurried out the door after mistaking the wall for a way out._

_End Flashback_

"No, don't be silly, Tsunade-sama. You know I don't drink sake…"

As she said this, her arms loosened enough that Tonton fell to the ground, luckily uninjured. Tonton gave a joyous squeal, and ran over to Tsunade, glad to finally be out of danger.

"Tonton, there you are! I've been looking everywhere for you!" The poor pig tried to run, but was too slow; he was now once again resting in Shizune's arms. "Thanks for your help, Tsunade-sama, but I've got to go help prepare for the chunnin exams. Thanks for your help, Tsunade-sama!" She turned and quickly stumbled out the door.

Another loud crash sound was heard a few seconds later, and Tsunade couldn't help it anymore. She burst into laughter, unable to stop until one of the chunnin showed up minutes later.

* * *

Ibiki stood just outside the Hokage's building, where something had just collided with Kotetsu, sending him to the ground, along with the papers he was carrying.

"What the hell?" He then noticed Shizune lying unconscious on the ground next to Kotetsu, wearing a comical look on her face. "Kotetsu, take her to the hospital, I'll take care of these forms. I was just about to have you bring them to my office anyway."

"Her who?" the chunnin asked, still unaware of what hit him. He got to his feet, rubbing his head where it had presumably hit the ground. "Oh, it's Shizune. Ok, I'll get her there, but if you ask me, I'm the one who needs to visit the hospital."

Kotetsu struggled to pick up both Shizune, and an unconscious Tonton, and headed off for the hospital. He'd have to ask her what happened when she woke up. He had spoken with her many times before; when se wasn't busy in the hospital she would be working with him and Izumo to help the Hokage with her paperwork. She had never really seemed very clumsy, she must have had something important on her mind.

* * *

_So these are the genin I'll be testing tomorrow… _Ibiki thought to himself as he sat the multitude of files on his desk and began to browse through them. There were a few young shinobi that looked promising, but most of them seemed average. However, there was one team that particularly caught his eye. The file contained only their names, pictures, and the name of a village that he was _sure_ didn't exist. It was actually the names that caught his attention, as they were names he knew well. _This is going to be an interesting exam._

A large explosion caused him to look up from the file. As the smoke cleared, he saw a huge hole had been blown in his wall, which a single person jumped through into the room.

"Proctor of the second exam, Mitarashi Anko, has arrived!" came enthusiastic, semi-distinguishable words through a mouthful of dango. To Ibiki, the sight was anything but graceful. It almost _scared_ him.

"Why are you here?" Ibiki asked in an annoyed but calm tone.

"Why else?" she answered as if it were obvious, taking another bite of dango in the progress. "I'm a proctor too, and just because I don't _need_ to see the genins' information doesn't mean I can't dig up some dirt on 'em."

"Could you leave? I'm sort of busy here." The tone of his voice let her know that it wasn't a question.

"Fine." She tossed the dango skewer over her shoulder, where it would have stuck into the wall if she hadn't blown it up. "You're no fun anyway. I'll go find someone else to bother." Within seconds, she had left the way she had come, leaving behind a huge mess.

* * *

_Let's see..._ thought the hyperactive proctor as she hopped from rooftop to rooftop, scanning the streets. _Ah! There's Asuma! He doesn't look busy, but then again, when does he ever?_

"Hey! Asuma!" she yelled, landing nearby and running toward him.

"Uhh…sorry, can't talk right now. I'm taking Chouji here out for ramen in preparation for the exams tomorrow."

"Ramen? Why not something better?" She sure would've picked something different if it were up to her…maybe something sweet…

Chouji was the one to respond first. "We had barbeque yesterday, so Asuma-sensei said I had to choose something else."

"Well, if you'll excuse us. We're both pretty hungry. So see ya around." Asuma then quickly pulled Chouji away towards Ichiraku's, well aware that Anko could be really scary when she wasn't happy, and equally scary when she was.

* * *

It took only a minute for them to arrive at Ichiraku's, only a few blocks away. As his student continued eating long after Asuma had finished his single bowl of ramen, he couldn't find an opportunity to talk to Chouji, so he talked with Teuchi, the restaurant owner, instead.

"Yeah, we've had to spend the last week getting used to having a fourth member in the team. His abilities are actually really useful, even if they are a bit creepy."

Throughout the conversation, Teuchi just nodded politely, not understanding most of the shinobi activities that Asuma talked about. By the time they were ready to leave, he regretted not letting Asuma smoke in the shop; it may have kept him quieter.

The two had soon payed their bill and left, but Teuchi barely had enough time to clear the dishes off the counter before more customers had shown up. A young couple had just seated themselves at the counter. On the left was a girl wearing a cream-colored jacket, and rectangle-rimmed glasses that hid her eyes. Actually, come to think of it, it would be commonly thought of as the right side, because he was on the other side of the counter, not that it mattered.

"Hey! Old man! Two large bowls of misu ramen." The familiar teasing voice caused Teuchi to freeze in his tracks. _Could that be…_ "And she'll have a medium bowl."

"Naruto!"

_Oops… _Naruto was so distracted that he had forgotten that of all places, he would most easily be recognized here. He looked around…_Good, we're the only ones here. Well, no use hiding it now… _Naruto lowered his hood. "Heh…you got me…"

Yep, this was certainly Naruto, his best customer, the ramen-loving future-hokage that disappeared six months ago.

"Uhh…listen. Could you _please_ not tell anyone you saw me?"

"Why is that? Embarrassed about being seen with your _girlfriend_?" Teuchi teased.

This caused both Naruto and Hinata to blush heavily.

"N-No. I…don't want people to know I'm back…"

"Okay, I won't tell anyone. But I expect you to eat here again, deal?"

Naruto laughed at what he wasn't sure was a friendly invitation or a blackmail threat. "Deal."

* * *

"Hinata-chan, you don't need to apologize for something silly like that. You did fine. It's not your fault if your sister doesn't treat you well. She just doesn't know you enough."

They were just arriving back at the Uchiha sector after making the long walk back across town. The sun was starting to set soon, and the sky was dyed half orange, half blue. They stopped for a moment and turned to face each other.

"Hey, dobe!"

Sasuke had arrived just after them, surprisingly carrying Sakura on his back. As they got closer, it became apparent that Sakura's left leg had been badly burned.

"Wh-What happened?" Hinata asked, wanting to know if Sakura was alright.

"Sasuke-kun went a little overboard with his training, and accidentally got both of us burnt. But don't worry; _I_ was able to heal him." Sakura explained, proud of her own accomplishment. Sasuke looked really upset about the incident, but Naruto couldn't tell if it was because he hurt Sakura or because he lost control of a jutsu.

Naruto was about to start yelling at Sasuke for hurting Sakura, when Shimei's voice called to them from a nearby house: "Could you four go to bed or something? You need plenty of sleep for the exam tomorrow. Plus, you're interrupting my nap."

"He's right," Sasuke added, "we have to wake up early tomorrow, we should get some sleep." With that, he let Sakura down, and they walked to the main building together. Apparently, Sakura had completely healed herself as well, but didn't mention it because it wasn't as good of bragging material. Naruto and Hinata just looked at each other as if the other would explain things. When neither did, they both turned to walk to their room.

* * *

End of chapter 8

**Please leave review!**

I bet this was an interesting chapter to read. I was laughing uncontrollably as I wrote certain parts of it, so I hope you at least got some good laughs too. Anyway, like I said, not many answers in this chapter. It's just here to use up the spare day before the exams.

Next chapter will continue with the chunnin exams(obviously).

**Please leave review!**

Preview:

The first exam! The genin are forced to take a written test! We know some will have few problems, but will Naruto be able to come up with the answers? Also, there will be (Leave a Review) other stuff in the next chapter, stuff that I don't even know of yet, and I'm the author.

Next Chapter: (Title undecided)


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